Parable about how the technique Pomodoro saved the inveterate workaholic

Have you ever been captured by your own passion for perfectionism, the desire to succeed and become a pro in your favorite business? I happened to experience how love for what I do, turned into a golden cage first, and then into heavy fetters. Do you recognize yourself? Then welcome to the club of hard-core suicidal workaholics! I will tell you my story about how I decided to get rid of the shackles voluntarily put on myself, and how the Pomodoro technique helped me in this.

... Perhaps, it is worth starting with the fact that I used to work much more than 40 working hours per week established by Henry Ford as usual for all of us. Once, the normal regime for me was to work 60-80 hours a week, or even more. I treat those people who get up without problems early, even if they went to bed in the morning. So working at night on an urgent project seemed to me quite normal. For the time being ...

The peak of madness - two weeks for 20 hours of work every day, for a total of 140 hours a week! Tons of coffee and food at the computer, there was no time for procrastination. I went to bed when it was light to start the working day again with everyone — at 8-9 am, and if I could sleep for 3 hours, it was a luxury. In the dream, I continued to solve working problems - the tetris effect, have you heard of this? After such a forced march, I had to sleep for three days. Result: the project was handed over, one could jokingly boast about how good I am, and in two weeks I did what, under the normal circumstances, it would take a couple of months. But in fact, I felt disgusting - the level of stress that my body suffered was steeper than any “medals for working capacity” that can be trumped in front of partners and customers. As a bonus, impressive bruises under the eyes and aristocratic pallor were given to pride in themselves.
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Do you need it?

And in the end, how did we get to work 60-80 hours a week? One day I decided that was enough for me. I just discovered that I want to have free time, like all normal people who come home from work in the evening, so I firmly decided that after five (at that time I started work at 6 in the morning) I turned off the computer and did not touch it until the next morning. And what happened? It turned out that I had absolutely forgotten how to rest. I just didn’t know where to put the ton of precious time I received, all my hobbies and hobbies were covered with a thick layer of dust, and my friends too (figuratively speaking).

Do you recognize yourself?

Think about the fact that, giving all his time to work, we kill other very important aspects of their lives. And for what? It's great if what you do really brings you pleasure (for example, I adore my work), but still think that there is nothing left in this life besides this very work. It happens that there is nothing to talk about except for their work achievements.

Let's take, for example, our beloved Google (for example, oh, now I’m happy to “charge” with a spoon of tar into this all-glorified barrel of high-tech honey). Who would not want to be in the offices of the company, plunge into the vortex of modern technology and work hand in hand with young, bright, talented and full of energy people? Have you ever talked to workers from the “corporation of good”? It's no secret that Google is very reverent about its culture, one of the features of which is cohesion and, excuse me, partly herd instinct - voluntarily-forcibly you spend your free time in the company of fellow workers (none of whom acknowledge that you would prefer something else in another company). So, a person who does not work in Google will be unbearably boring with Googleers - they are practically unable to talk about something other than what they do in offices. Tested on personal experience. Sorry guys, that's true.



This is information for you to think about: no matter how much you love work, you need to allocate time for rest and self-development, so that you do not feel like a calculator, unable to support other (different from the workers) topics of conversation. What about a hobby? And the family?

Do not work much

I did not immediately realize that I work so much still in order to fill the vacuum inside myself. But it was like a black hole - no matter how much time I threw, how many tasks I could not cope with, it seemed to me that I could be more productive. Every freelancer and every entrepreneur knows that if you want to achieve a result, then you need to work hard - until the seventh sweat. Since our childhood, our teachers, grandmothers and parents have driven our heads into our heads, and employers and customers shake their heads approvingly (we should say so!), And we believe that we have to exhaust ourselves — otherwise we will not see success. And if we feel that we are not working to the fullest, then the feeling of guilt instilled from childhood, the scourge of modern society, begins to gnaw at us. Stop and think, is this the path to the goal that you want to go?

The paradox is that you do not have to work a lot, you have to work productively. During my studies I was struck by one case: a computer graphics teacher noted that the very first of my projects was the very first (which I considered to be a draft at all). To my startled look, he replied: “It’s not at all necessary to“ work out ”in order to achieve the best result.”

And now we are faced with a new problem: what needs to be done in order not to “work out” and manage to complete all of our plans? The answers for each may be different, but I will share my own experience, and I really hope that he will help you find your perfect balance.

All ingenious is simple

Having decided to change my life and my approach to work, I took up the search for solutions. It was necessary to restructure your work process — not to work more or harder, but to work less and more productively. Feel the difference? Not harder, but more productive. Strange, but for some reason in our mind these words are so closely intertwined that they almost become synonymous, although this is not at all the case.

I tried several solutions, all of them eventually had to be customized. And now I want to tell you about a very effective and at the same time simple method, which I didn’t want to try for a long time precisely because of its blatant primitiveness - it seemed to me that for serious changes powerful solutions were needed. Fortunately, I was wrong. This is the famous Pomodoro technique about which many articles and treatises are written.

Pomodoro: what is and what to eat?

So, for starters, some lyrics. This simple method is based on four basic principles:

1. Work with time, not against it. The technique offers a new look at time: not as the eternal "working not for us" enemy, but as an ally.
2. Plan your vacation while working: short breaks help keep you in reserve for a longer time.
3. Eliminate distractions: usually phone calls, mail, social networks and a lot of “urgent details” can wait without any harm for you and your discounts.
4. No procrastination: work on the perfect balance of work and rest, without torturing yourself with feelings of guilt caused by waste of time and inefficient work.

And now let's see what the algorithm of the successful operation of the Pomodoro equipment is:

1) Select the task.
2) Set the timer for 25 minutes (I increased this time for myself to 45 minutes).
3) Concentrated and not distracting working on the task all this time. As soon as the timer notifies about the end of the working period, we tick off with a sense of accomplishment - one tomato is completed, we are great!
4) We rest for 5 minutes (I have 15 minutes - so one cycle fits into the hour).
5) Repeat steps 1-4 three more times, then rest 15 minutes.



Easy isn't it?

No, not as easy as it sounds. Pomodoro offers us to work without distraction for half an hour, fully concentrating on a single task. No Facebook and gMail, no other “urgent” cases - only you and the main task for this period of time. I want to warn you right away - it can be difficult to get used to it

Therefore:

1. Try working with one tab in the browser. For example, when I do a translation, I only have Word (as a rule) and the dictionary open. Of course, sometimes you need to check some facts from the text or spelling of names - then Google and all sorts of dictionaries to help. But as soon as I find out what I needed, I immediately close all the extra tabs so as not to accidentally “run into” interesting articles, news, etc.
2. Think over the tasks in advance. Create simple tables (you can in the old manner on a sheet of paper), where you will write down what tasks you should perform during each day. Do not write how much time you would like to spend on them, but in the process simply tick off each one, where one tick equals one completed “tomato” cycle.

SmartProgress and Pomodoro

I have always believed that in building an ideal workflow, it is necessary to actively use modern technologies and all the benefits of civilization. No matter how good the Pomodoro equipment is, in my opinion, it should be optimized for each person, and for its more effective use it is necessary to stock up on additional tools. Nowadays, you will find many helpers who will protect your productivity and quiet work - from simple interactive calendars to smart watches and powerful web services. Therefore, pay attention to SmartProgress - a service that is designed to help you in setting both long-term and short-term goals. To begin with, set a goal to reduce the number of working hours and gradually reduce the number of daily “tomatoes” - SmartProgress will help you not to deviate from the course and achieve your goals. You will be surprised at how your projects “shrink”, taking much less time than before. And gradually reducing the number of daily work cycles, you will find that you no longer need to work 40 hours a week. In addition, thanks to the mentoring system and communication in the community, your motivation and sense of satisfaction with your own productivity will grow.

And most importantly: everything is good in moderation

In order not to find yourself in new networks, you can not get hung up on one thing. Therefore, when you see that your productivity has increased, for example, twice, do not give this time to a new job - enjoy the rest, chatting with family and friends. I realized that it is very important to set small goals before me - as a result, their achievement motivates you to do more. And this is much better than the feeling of tiredness and fatigue, to which the task, chosen with excessive optimism, leads.

Find the magic number of "tomatoes" per day. Try it today. Start with one, if you like it, then arrange tomorrow “tomato day”. This is amazing, but I used to spend much more time on work because it involved a lot of distractions that not only interfered with productivity, but they couldn’t even be called complete rest (do I have a good time at Pinterest or Facebook for half an hour? Eyes still tense, the body is just as tense as when working).

Do not work 7 days a week. Make at least one full day off, better two. Get off to the full - it will help recharge your batteries. Change the scenery, go somewhere for a picnic, fishing, to the mountains (if any), to another city, to another country.



Or just wallow all day at the TV, cut into your favorite video games and eat all those sweets and “harm” that you have denied yourself all week. Tested on my own experience - all this is absolutely amazingly energizing and desire to break through the thorns to the stars.

Result

Now, in five hours I am coping with what would have taken me all day (10 hours, no less). Not a bad result, right? For the sake of fairness, it is worth adding that, as you have already seen, I brushed this technique a bit for myself. One working cycle lasts one hour. During the working day I rest an hour or two. After work all the time I give to my beloved spouse, numerous hobbies and reading. And at the end of the week we are arranging for ourselves a completely unscrupulous weekend - down with working rationalism, only the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the new chapter of The Last of Us on PS4!

SmartProgress - Achieving Goals